‘The Keeper’

Enjoyable if slight bio of Bert Trautmann, a German POW on English soil who, against all odds, became a legendary sporting hero in England itself.

David Kross is the lead as, with the help of local grocer Jack Friar (John Henshaw) and his daughter, Margaret (Freya Mavor), Trautmann gets time off from the post-war internment camp and becomes the goalkeeper for the local St Helens football club. Scouts soon arrive and, just three years after the end of the war, Trautmann is controversially signed by Manchester City.

It takes time to win the fans over – and Trautmann faced a great deal of abuse from opposing fans when travelling to other cities – but the famed 1956 Wembley FA Cup Final with Manchester City playing Birmingham City ensured that the German ‘keeper entered the annals of footballing history.

No risks are taken by director Marcus H. Rossenmüller in telling this straightforward story of a man who overcame public hostility to become a local hero (with more than a little help from his wife, Margaret).

Rating: 61%

Director: Marcus H. Rossenmüller (Grave Decisions, The Colour of Mother-of-Pearl)

Writer: Marcus H. Rossenmüller (Grave Decisions, The Colour of Mother-of-Pearl), Nicholas J. Schofield (Blutzbrüdaz)

Main cast: David Kross (The Reader, War Horse), John Henshaw (Stan & Ollie, The Angels’ Share), Freya Mavor (The Sense of an Ending, Sunshine on Leith)